|
The work of LibertadLatina
would be much more difficult to accomplish without the existence of the
pioneering television-based advocacy efforts of Peruvian lawyer and
NBC/Telemundo Network talk show star Dr. Laura Bozzo. Dr.
Bozzo’s internationally broadcast program, seen by tens of millions of
viewers each day, has literally broken a previously unspoken but
enforced
‘code of silence’ that effectively muffled the cries of adult and
child sexual abuse victims across Latin America. We salute Dr.
Bozzo!
Before the Laura en America show appeared, Latina exploitation victims
were rarely taken seriously.
For example, in the Washington, DC region where
LibertadLatina’s
founder and coordinator started his Latina advocacy work in the 1980’s,
it was next to impossible in that era to find community leaders who were
willing to stand up and speak out and defend Latina women and minor
girls who faced rape, severe sexual harassment and other abuses in the
U.S. Capitol region. During the 1980s and 1990s, some community
leaders even denied that any advocacy efforts for women were needed.
Women felt the need to remain silent as Latino culture demanded of
victims. Many male and female leaders within government and
community institutions collaborated in suppressing any open discussion
of sexual exploitation issues.
Men saw no need for change.
Female
exploitation in El Barrio went unchallenged.
Today, those conditions are changing from the grass roots. With a
hit TV show shown in two daily time slots and an international TV
audience numbering in the millions, Dr. Bozzo has proven with her
ratings success that women and girls of all races and economic classes
across the Spanish-speaking world strongly support her efforts to break
the ‘code of silence’ about sexual exploitation forever.
Dr. Bozzo’s work has provided a role model for women, children and men
across the Americas. She has helped Latinas everywhere ‘find their
voice.’ Sexual exploitation is no longer a silent issue.
Dr. Bozzo, who also runs a women and children’s family social services
agency – Solidaridad de Familia (Family Solidarity) is using her
international TV platform to educate women, girls, boys and men about
women’s equality. This is a radically new message in Latin
America. Male supremacists who frequently appear on Dr. Bozzo’s
program openly defend their right to act with impunity and take whatever
sexual privileges they want from the women and underage girls who cross
their paths. Dr. Bozzo uses her legal reasoning and debating
talents to allow all sides in a conflict to express their points of
view. Dr. Bozzo then tries conflict resolution, which men often
resist. Some cases end with reconciliation. In other cases,
the Lima city prosecutor takes abusers from the set straight to jail.
Dr. Bozzo’s show often results in finally freeing victims from repeated
acts of harassment and rape.
Dr. Bozzo includes professional social workers and psychologists from
Solidaridad de Familia in her programs, sending traumatized women,
children and sometimes men directly to counseling sessions.
The Laura en America Show presents literally dozens of first-hand
accounts of sexual exploitation (and also infidelity, another major
theme of the show) each week. Dr. Bozzo’s sensitive interviews,
often reinforced by hidden video footage of the abuses, describe clearly
the sexual exploitation issues that Peruvian women and underage girls
face constantly in daily life. Female and male victims… adults,
youth and children, freely describe the horrors of their daily
experiences with rape in the home, acquaintance rape, stranger rape,
community, school and workplace rape and harassment, beatings, forced
prostitution and trafficking. Dr. Bozzo especially emphasizes that
these behaviors are
wrong!
There is nothing more hidden from public view than violent sexual
assault and the use of coercion. On the Laura in America Show,
even 10 year old girls facing sexual harassment and rape have the
ability to secretly record and present video evidence of the hell that
they live through in their daily lives.
In
addition to acts of sexual exploitation carried out with impunity, Dr.
Bozzo’s show also demonstrates how minor girls who accuse stepfathers
and other adult perpetrators are often not believed by their mothers.
Women who sell children (even their own daughters) for prostitution are
also exposed. The common but 'unspoken' patterns of abuse
perpetrated by mothers who abandon their children, or even attempt to
harm (even kill) their own children at a new boyfriend's insistence, are
also confronted.
Throughout Latin America women and children face sexual
exploitation and other forms of physical and psychological violence.
Approximately 40 million homeless children live in Latin America.
They and millions of other women and children must survive by engaging
in prostitution and ‘survival sex.’ Estimates of the number of
children trapped in prostitution include up to 2 million in Brazil,
500,000 in Peru, 500,000 in northeast Argentina, and hundreds of
thousands of victims in other Latin American countries. UNICEF
also estimates that 80,000 children and youth die annually in Latin
America from domestic violence at home. HIV/AIDS may reach
‘African’ levels in some parts of Latin America. In Peru, 75% of
girls have been raped by age 15 and up to 80% of women face domestic
violence. Dr. Bozzo boldly dares to openly discuss all of these
critical issues, which are still considered to be taboo subjects by many
Latino cultural traditionalists. Dr. Bozzo also presents real
solutions to her viewers.
Dr. Bozzo’s show treats Indigenous, African-descended and all
other women and girls with a level of equality, human dignity and
respect that does not exist elsewhere in Spanish-language network TV's
U.S. and international markets. Peru’s multiracial society shines
through in the context of female empowerment, a concept we support 100%.
Dr. Bozzo's show promotes all forms of equality.
“You are an amazing
woman. You are strong and full of love and compassion for people. You
are such a blessing in this world. Unlike other talk shows you are
truly there to help people, not just to benefit from them for publicity
or money. May God bless you Laura…” –
From a viewer’s letter posted on LibertadLatina.org.
The Laura en America show and LibertadLatina
compliment each other. In effect,
LibertadLatina is the
Internet version of Dr. Bozzo's show, and vice-versa. Many viewers
of the Laura en America Show visit
LibertadLatina
and write affectionate letters for "Laura." We always post
Laura’s fan letters.
Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Bozzo,
LibertadLatina and sister
organizations in the Americas, women of all races and all classes have
new-found, powerful voices against impunity. Women and girls in
even the most remote regions of the Spanish speaking world can watch
Laura's show and put gender equality into practice in their personal
lives. The women’s rights, anti-domestic violence and
anti-exploitation movements across the Americas are greatly strengthened
by Dr. Bozzo’s work.
Dr. Bozzo is a true pioneer in the woman and children’s human rights
movement!
We
desire Dr. Bozzo complete victory in her unfortunate and long-standing
legal problems in Peru. As many activists for human rights know,
such 'problems' come with the territory of 'breaking the mold.' In
Latin America, defending women and children's rights can cause opponents
of those efforts (men who don't want gender equality) to fight back.
Sadly, Peruvians cannot watch Laura en America. The show has been
banned by Peru’s government!
We
at LibertadLatina
and all of Dr. Bozzo's viewing public especially applaud and support
Laura's bravery during over 2 years of house arrest (in her TV
studio) and during other acts of intimidation.
Keep up the great work and be strong, Laura!
We love you and support you 100!
Free Laura Bozzo!
Chuck Goolsby
Founder
and
Coordinator
www.LibertadLatina.org
Washington,
DC
March 8,
2005
International
Women’s
Day
|
/ Welcome
